Sometimes words don’t really sum up the feeling of a place, or a ride, or a trail. Buffalo Creek is a special place for us. It has one of the best trail networks in Colorado and the terrain is friendly to all manner of bikes. We’re all looking for that singletrack feeling, and sometimes we find it.
Beer, watermelon, cool air, way-past-midnight tacos, are the natural ingredients to fuel the night ride. When the light fades and the dark blankets the trail, some go to bed. Others heed the rally cries to pedal. We all came looking for something – what I’m not sure – but I reveled in mystery riding at night. Rarely do I feel lost while riding a bike. When your vision is dulled, your other senses heighten, and your sense of place is muddied. Throw in good company, old + new, and you have a night rally.
Endless climbing! Hero dirt! Banditos! Cervezas! Andy Kadlec took forty of us on a joyride-fiesta through the hills above Boulder Colorado on the day after Cinco De Mayo and good times ensued. Here’s a Black River Map if you’d like to ride it yourself. Just remember to bring a lot of water, your climbing legs, and a sense of adventure!
It’s been a really really busy year here at Rodeo. Working on bikes, kits, forks, wheels, rallies, and the Roundup has taken a huge bite out of miles ridden. They say if you work in the bike industry then you can expect to ride less. They may be right about that but we aren’t going down without a fight. We started Rodeo because we loved riding bikes, with friends, in the mountains, and we’re going to keep doing that until our legs have no pedaling left in them. The bike industry can wait.
Monday was a government holiday so Monday was a day for riding bikes. Geoff had a new Traildonkey that he hadn’t yet fully put through its paces and he had some time to burn. He extended an invite, I accepted, and into the hills we ventured.
Continue readingCome ride one of Denver’s longest and most historic stretches of gravel with us… at night!
The Highline Canal is a gorgeous, serpentine gem of a route that cuts diagonally through Denver from Waterton Canyon all the way out past Aurora. The route is almost completely flat and promises to be a great time.
Details:
We’re riding south to north, meeting at Mineral Station in Littleton at 8:30pm.Feel free to ride down to Mineral station to the meetup just hop on the light rail and pop off to join up.
Josh is the ride leader on this one. His cell is: 303-807-6776.
Front and rear lights are a must. Perhaps a mid-ride stop for a quick beverage. Some general shenanigans along the way. And of course we will stop for every possible photo op imaginable…
The full Highline route is 75 miles with 1,400 ft. elevation gain, but with so many places to join or exit as needed you can tailor this ride to your ambition.
This is a “come one, come all” style rally. Speed isn’t the priority.
Extra style points for anyone dressed in rodeo-themed attire…
Planned for Oct 14, 2017, CO. Come rally with us in an entirely new area of Colorado. We’ve scouted the roads and conditions and views are more than prime. Check out the planned route after the break and stay tuned to this page for updates.
We’ve been shouting about it pretty hard lately, but just in case you missed it, we launched the Flaanimal 3.0.
Straight away we started reading and listening to peoples’ reactions and impressions about what we’ve created. Some people were all-in from the start, with the first order coming in no less that five minutes after we launched. Thank you!
Other people were more skeptical. What is so great about our bike? Why should anyone pay attention? Could anyone trust our claims that a single frameset can be suitable for road biking, gravel riding, cyclocross, city riding, or trail riding?
Skepticism is fair. No harm no foul. But as I read through the comments one comment struck me.
“Yeah you can build a mountain bike with it, but is it a GOOD mountain bike?”
Sometimes the best rides come together last minute. This is one of those rides. The invite went out late in the day Saturday for an early Sunday departure. I didn’t know if anybody would be able to come. I didn’t even know if I wanted a big group or not. I was heading east because nowadays east is where I go to clear my head.
Sometimes you put out a ride invite and optimistically hope that only the right people show up. The “right” people are people that want to ride about as fast as you, that don’t mind stopping when you want to.
The right people are also easy to talk to, they laugh at your dumb jokes. You laugh at their dumb jokes too. The right people consider dumb jokes to be an art form.
The right people don’t mind wind, don’t mind flats, don’t mind washboard, and don’t mind getting up early.
Tom, Josh, Geoff, and Patrick were the right people on Sunday. I’m really glad that they showed up. It was a great ride.
We’re working up something new for 2017. Traditionally an organized Rodeo ride is a Rodeo Rally, but for 2017 we want to do a couple of longer, more adventurous multi day events. Thus, the term Rodeo Roundup has been coined. We want to offer a few events big enough to attract out of town Rodeoers and non-Rodeoers alike for the sake of building community and sharing some of the gems of our state.
The mountains are, by default, the place that I go to for inspiration and replenishment on a bike. The challenge, variety, and beauty of rolling hills and jagged peaks can’t really be matched by anything else.
Or can they?
